Trulli to Lotus announcement imminent

[harsha]

Trulli favourite for the Lotus seat
The Malaysian-owned new Lotus team has signed its first driver for the 2010 season, boss Tony Fernandes revealed on his Twitter page. "Public announcement soon," he said. "The dream continues."

It is likely the signed driver is the Italian veteran Jarno Trulli, with the Malaysian World Series by Renault driver Fairuz Fauzy expected to secure the role as tester.

"Fairuz will be in the team probably as a reserve driver or a test driver," technical director Mike Gascoyne told Malaysia's The Star.

"He has the talent but we don't want him to 'crash and burn' in the race because of his inexperience," the Briton added.

http://en.f1-live.com/f1/en/headlines/news/detail/091115012454.shtml

[maximilian]

Thankfully they seem to be smart enough not to put Fauzy into a race seat. I wonder who their second driver will be? Kobayashi perhaps also coming over from Toyota? Comeback of Sato? Or a rookie/pay driver?

[K-Pu]

Well, Lotus will get some experience with Trulli but Fauzi IMO is a complete disaster. Yes, he is Malasyan and he´ll bring some money, but after seeing him in GP2 I wouldn´t give him a race seat under any circumstances.

At least the team says they´ll put him as test driver, but the "danger" of pay-drivers lurks in every alley...

[DazzlaF1]

Thankfully they seem to be smart enough not to put Fauzy into a race seat. I wonder who their second driver will be? Kobayashi perhaps also coming over from Toyota? Comeback of Sato? Or a rookie/pay driver?

Kobayashi would be a smart decision, someone for Trulli to nurture, like Barrichello is bound to at Williams with Hulkenberg.

[Sonic]

Please God no. I will have to kill myself if Fauzy ever gets let anywhere near a Grand Prix race seat: fact.

[DazzlaF1]

Please God no. I will have to kill myself if Fauzy ever gets let anywhere near a Grand Prix race seat: fact.

To be fair to Fauzy, he has had a strong season in Formula Renault 3.5 where he finished ahead of Jaime Alguersuari.

Thats not saying much though as apart from Alguersuari, Baguette and Turvey, it was a pretty poor championship this year in terms of driver potential.

[woody2goody]

To be fair to Fauzy, he has had a strong season in Formula Renault 3.5 where he finished ahead of Jaime Alguersuari.

Thats not saying much though as apart from Alguersuari, Baguette and Turvey, it was a pretty poor championship this year in terms of driver potential.

Fauzy isn't terrible but I don't think he's F1 material either.

I'd rather give Pantano, Davidson, Sato or Klien a shot (although Klien will probably drive for Sauber if they get in).

As for young drivers, it's difficult but why not Adam Carroll, Andy Soucek or Paul di Resta?

[Sonic]

Fauzy isn't terrible but I don't think he's F1 material either.



I agree with one of those statements.

This is a driver who managed to score nil points in GP2, two seasons in a row! (I will give him that his teams were not top draw but he was soundly beaten by his team mates).

He's spent ten years climbing the ladder and has been poor at almost every step. He was plain terrible in Formula ford back in the late '90's but still somehow made the step to Renault 2000, where he was rubbish again! Three years in British F3 yielded nothing, yet he kept climbing. The only place he has had even moderate success is in weak championships like Renault 3.5.

Looking at that career there can only be one reason he keeps landing drives - and its got nothing to do with his tallent.

[Pinto]

talk about our way is that Adam Carroll has a shoe in for the second seat

[Sonic]

Now that I'd be very happy to see.

[Bezza]

Hopefully we'll see Kobayashi in the race seat. He proved he can beat Trulli in just his second race, so a full season with them together would be intriguing.

[jens]

I am positive about Trulli's move to Lotus. A new fresh environment will have a positive effect for him after a disappointing ending at Toyota. I think the constant pressures at Toyota in 2009 ("you must-must-must win, otherwise you suck, you will be sacked and the existence of the whole team will be screwed") got a bit into his head in the second half of the season, which probably were reflected a bit in his behavious/driving too.

But Gascoyne should know well, what does it take to get the best out of Trulli, so I'm looking forward to that healthy relationship and that Jarno has still something to offer to F1 circus as it is called. It would be wise to make a 2-year-deal for Jarno, which is what I'm hoping for, as especially a completely new team will most probably struggle in its first season and it's better to wait for second year with the hope of actually getting a reward for hard build-up work.

[ioan]

I am positive about Trulli's move to Lotus.

Yep, a few races at the back of the grid and he will finally realize that he missed the right time to retire. :\

[jens]

Yep, a few races at the back of the grid and he will finally realize that he missed the right time to retire. :\

Well yes, the outlook of racing at the back is the main negative aspect. But then again Fisichella joined a true backmarker of Force India in 2008 and Barrichello decided to keep going despite racing at the back in 2007-2008. Probably drivers even at that age feel they still have some unfinished business, need something to prove and want a new challenge (why not try to "build up" a new team then). "Results" as such may have secondary importance at that moment with team athmosphere being primary (after years of staying in a high-pressure environment of a factory team).

[Sonic]

A true racer will push as hard for 21st position as they would for a win. Trulli has got plenty to offer a young team and in an enviroment he feels comfortable and happy he can enjoy the end of his career, and perhaps build the basis of a strong team.

[woody2goody]

A true racer will push as hard for 21st position as they would for a win. Trulli has got plenty to offer a young team and in an enviroment he feels comfortable and happy he can enjoy the end of his career, and perhaps build the basis of a strong team.

Jarno's a racer. He won't care (well, he will to some extent) if he's at the back, as long as he's got people to race against. With the new teams, there's a very good chance that there'll be 8 cars together in a pack. Even if they are adrift of the main bunch, guys like Trulli and Glock will want to make sure they are the 'best of the rest' in every race.

There was nothing wrong with Trulli's pace, both in qualifying and the races this year, and to me, Fisichella had his best year since 2004 at Sauber. There's a lot of fight left in both guys, which is why I was annoyed at Giancarlo for taking the test driver's job at Ferrari. He's still too good to be doing nothing. Ferrari have Luca and Marc to do that for them.

We also have a fresh start for Rubens, and I think he'll do brilliantly. The pressure of having a talented team-mate could spur him on to great things if Williams can give him a car that's good enough. He'll beat Hulkenburg in 2010, I'm almost certain.